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"For all the saints, who from their labours rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!"
I love this hymn. How are all you saints in potentia this weekend? The first weekend of November, the last weekend of the interminably long campaign, Deo volens! Thank you for your comments :)
Mum & I had a great trip to the USA to see family and friends: New Jersey (side trip to Manhattan), North Carolina, South Carolina, back to North Carolina changed planes in Atlanta, California, Nevada and back to California. I give thanks for this modern world of high speed travel and communications. While I thank God regularly for the internet (particularly Kennon and pleonast), if some time has elapsed, I treasure restocking one's heart and memories by visiting people "IRL".
The just over two weeks' absence was not enough time for the neighbours' kitty, Lara the Nom Monster, to forget me, or rather, my association with food. One of these days I'll have to ensure there's a camera around, as the efforts to which she strives to crank up her cuteness just for the treats are delightfully cute!
Speaking of cool stuff, I lost 3.5lb last week. Mum & I have started going to Weight Watchers. I've just retried (3rd attempt now) booking a tour of my local gym. This gym is part of a chain, another instance of which is the gym to which my parents belong, so if I like my local gym, then when I visit my parents at weekends, I can use their gym also.
Cherish, what's the best of time of year to visit the land of a million lakes, given that I'm a wimp and both 40 below and 100 above are anathema to me? Spring or Autumn? I cleaned out my savings for this recent holiday, so I'd say at earliest, Autumn next year, but probably more like 2010 :(
My previous spiritual director e-mailed me this week, which was very timely of her. I give thanks regularly for her, for the wonderful minister in Birmingham Diocese who suggested her to me, and for the counsellor whom she suggested. She's also provided me with the name of a counsellor in Cambridge, which I will investigate; just not sure whether it will be before or after my retreat at the end of the month.
Ok. I need to go to Boots the Chemist to pick up my next 100 200mg ferrous sulphate tablets and then hit the road to Mum & Dad's, where we will see Quantum of Solace, hooray! I hope you all have a blessed weekend, and no matter what your political inclination, if you haven't already voted, please vote on Tuesday. I didn't register my overseas ballot in time, so once again I have disenfranchised myself. Until next time, please take care of yourselves and God bless you :)
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No, your eyes have not deceived you, this is indeed a new (although fairly paltry) post from Elainie. Thank you, everyone, for your comments (especially the lolcat piccies :). One of these days I do hope to address each of them in turn, or perhaps that's my OCD tendencies talking. The UK didn't really have a summer this year, but the floods weren't as bad as last year, so for that relief many thanks.
I do have asteroid hyalosis in my right eye, but the diagnosis sounds worse than the actual tiny speckles (motes) in my vision field. Given the health problems many endure, little soapy fat globules / crystals in the viterous humours is hardly anything about which to blog, so moving on....
Some stuff was disposed of from my parents' house. The garage is more accessible now. However, most of my stuff from Birmingham is still up in the roof space. A project for next year, I think. Why wait for another 3 months? I'm using 10 days' holiday as of Monday visiting friends & family in the USA with my Mum. I really should stop writing now and get on with figuring out what I'm taking to my parents' house, where the majority of my clothes are and the suitcases I'm packing.
That leaves me with 1.5 days remaining for this holiday year, which I'm using at the end of November for an Advent Retreat with the Community of All Hallows, an Anglican religious order. If God wills it, I hope one of the sisters there may be a spiritual director prospect.
So I'll be working in between Christmas and New Year this time, as last year I had that time off and it's only fair. New holiday year starts 1 January, woohoo.
The Lambeth Conference went quite well, better in some ways than doomsayers had portended. The hospitality provided by our Diocese was superb, if I do blow my own parents' trumpets.
I'm still feeding the neighbour's kitty, Lara, whenever she trots up for her treats. I'm a prime example of how animals engender Pavlovian responses in humans. I call her "Nom Monster" and "Meow Face" and I get the benefits of a cat (being privileged to buy her kitty treats and watch her scarf them down) with none of the downside (except for her continuing to poop in my garden).
That's about it for now. While I'm travelling, I won't have reliable access to computers and/or Internet. I look forward to seeing lots of white names upon my return. Until next time, God bless and take care :)
PS (I like Dan Aykroyd's work a lot. I hope I would like him if I ever met him. However, I'm now concerned for him. Does Dan need money this badly? I know times are hard given the current economic crises, but words fail me. I think we should add Dan to our prayers....)
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Happy Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend for people in England; and a very Happy Wedding for Kennon and Chris in Germany, and all their family and friends, both those who are there with them, and those who are elsewhere.
I'm going to be away from my computer until Wednesday 28 May, hence the post. Nothing exciting. Will be catching both Indy and the Sex and the City films. I have a follow up appointment with the Eye Clinic of Ipswich Hospital on Wednesday, so that they confirm or refute their original diagnosis of suspected asteroid hyalosis in my right eye.
Major activity between now and then is working on my parents' garage and disposing of the mounds of accumulated detritus we have moved from house to house over the last decade or so. A mini skip (dumpster) has been hired. I'm not looking forward to it, as I'm a hoarder and far too attached to material things. My possessions own me. So this process will be good for me, even though it will feel like death during. Yes, that is a little emo melodramatic of me.
Therefore on a lighter note, thank you for all your birthday wishes :) To answer Ted's question, the UK does endure natural disasters but to a far lesser extent than the Texas coast, Tornado Alley or pretty much anywhere else in the world. England had an earthquake earlier this year, despite not being near any fault lines. When I still lived in Birmingham, a tornado hit there (2005). Hurricanes, not so much. The Great Storm of 1987 is referred to as a hurricane, but was not actually one.
To answer Miriam's questions, the bishops attending the Lambeth Conference are being housed by host families in the dioceses of England, Scotland and Wales. Among Mum's many tasks at the moment is sorting a garden party at one of the host families for all the rest of the host families in the St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich diocese, in advance of the arrival of the bishops.
Ok. This isn't getting me packed for the next four days. Whatever you all are doing, please enjoy yourselves and stay safe, if the two aren't contradictory. If they are, well, please stay as safe as you can while enjoying yourselves. Until next time, God bless and take care :)
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Thank you everyone for your comments on my previous entry, especially the birthday wishes :) Portmeirion was brilliant, and I highly recommend it to anyone including Wales in a trip to the UK. The weekend before (26/27 April), we went to see Jersey Boys in London. The performances were great, the staging was stunning and the story was well told. It was my first jukebox musical, and I thought it showcased the music of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons very well.
So far 35 is not too bad. I enjoyed being 34, but 10 days in, and 35 is ok at the moment, even if it means I can no longer get away with describing myself as "early 30s". No, 35 means mid 30s, fer shure, fer real sigh.
England is enjoying a lovely May, so much so I almost feel guilty about the conditions elsewhere: tornadoes in the USA, the cyclone in Burma and now the earthquake in China.
I'm in the middle of drafting a letter to my spiritual director as was, back in Birmingham. Although through the grace of God I have survived here in Suffolk for 21 months without counselling or spiritual direction, I feel both would be useful again now.
My brother has edited two features now, one of them from a company for whom he used to work, and that feature is going to the Cannes Film Festival, so I'm even more proud of him than usual.
The Anglican Communion has a decadal gathering of its bishops in July: the Lambeth Conference. The dioceses in the host nations (England, Scotland and Wales) are providing hospitality to the bishops and their spouses before the Conference starts. Among the several roles my parents fulfil for the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich is organising the diocesan hospitality for the visiting bishops.
My decree nisi has been scheduled for Monday 2nd June. If that goes through on that day, the earliest I may then apply for the decree to be made absolute is Tuesday 15th July. I think the fee for that is £40 / $80. If everything is in order, the court will send to and my soon-to-be-ex-once-and-for-all-this-time-we-really-mean-it husband the decree absolute.
That's about it from me at the moment. I hope you're all ok. Until next time, please take care of yourselves :)
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Google (EDITED - or rather, "Virgle" ;) thinks I'm "distressingly normal" :(
"Well, you're distressingly normal and could conceivably adjust to life as a deep space pioneer, though we recommend instead that you leave the Mars missions to the serious whack jobs who scored over 130 and instead finish year 3 of law school, tuck your toddler into bed, design Web 2.0 applications, run for Congress or do whatever other normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road thing you're currently doing with your normal, healthy, middle-of-the-road life."
Google just doesn't know me at all. I'm not sure if that's my fault, given the answers I selected, or their fault. I thought they knew everything by now. The realisation that there are gaps in Google's omniscience (which we kinda already knew from our Google testing of Pleo's privacy, Kennon rules :) disturbs me a little, but only a little. I love the Google announcements at this time of year :D
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